Flexible Automation and Integrated Manufacturing 1994


Book Description

The last decade has been characterized by global competitiveness and rapidly advancing technology in flexible automation, information management and integrated manufacturing. FAIM 94 focuses on state-of-the-art and future trends within the general area of flexible automation and integrated manufacturing. The FAIM conference series differs from many other conferences in that it presents an integrated picture of these related technologies, rather than focusing on one single technology.




Computer Aided and Integrated Manufacturing Systems


Book Description

This is an invaluable five-volume reference on the very broad and highly significant subject of computer aided and integrated manufacturing systems. It is a set of distinctly titled and well-harmonized volumes by leading experts on the international scene. The techniques and technologies used in computer aided and integrated manufacturing systems have produced, and will no doubt continue to produce, major annual improvements in productivity, which is defined as the goods and services produced from each hour of work. This publication deals particularly with more effective utilization of labor and capital, especially information technology systems. Together the five volumes treat comprehensively the major techniques and technologies that are involved. Contents: .: Optimal Dynamic Facility Design of Manufacturing Systems (T L Urban); Rapid Prototyping Technologies and Limitations (C K Chua & S M Chou); Visual Assessment of Free-Form Surfaces in CADCAM (R J Cripps & A A Ball); and other articles. Readership: Graduate students, academics, researchers, and industrialists in computer engineering, industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, systems engineering, artificial intelligence and operations management




Computer-Aided Design, Engineering, and Manufacturing


Book Description

In the competitive business arena companies must continually strive to create new and better products faster, more efficiently, and more cost effectively than their competitors to gain and keep the competitive advantage. Computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided engineering (CAE), and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) are now the industry standa




Advances In Manufacturing Technology VIII


Book Description

This volume comprises the Proceedings of the Tenth National Conference on Manufacturing Research held at the University of Technology, Loughborough, UK, in September 1994, the latest in a series of meetings first convened in 1985, and the first to be published by Taylor & Francis Ltd.; Keith Case and Steven Newman, the Conference Chairs, the book contains R. H. Weston's keynote address, "Requirements and Trends in Manufacturing Systems", and over 140 contributions, which together represent the leading edge, state-of-the-art knowledge in the area of manufacturing and production engineering and management. The contributions are organized by theme: process planning; systems integration and modelling; simulation and scheduling; concurrent engineering and design; process control; and inspection; and thus demonstrate the enormous range of topics that manufacturing research embraces and their relevance to improving current industrial practice.




Social and Cultural Change


Book Description

This book includes a comprehensive survey of the theories and principles employed by sociologists, anthropologists, and other social scientists in the study of sociocultural change. Employing these tools, the later chapters examine the major trends and challenges that face today's rapidly globalizing world. Students are asked to consider how they can participate actively in shaping the events that affect their lives. Among the book's pedagogical features are well over one hundred Web sites, organized by chapter and topic, which connect the text with contemporary events and commentary. Visit our website for sample chapters!




Computer Aided And Integrated Manufacturing Systems (A 5-volume Set) - Volume 3: Optimization Methods


Book Description

This is an invaluable five-volume reference on the very broad and highly significant subject of computer aided and integrated manufacturing systems. It is a set of distinctly titled and well-harmonized volumes by leading experts on the international scene.The techniques and technologies used in computer aided and integrated manufacturing systems have produced, and will no doubt continue to produce, major annual improvements in productivity, which is defined as the goods and services produced from each hour of work. This publication deals particularly with more effective utilization of labor and capital, especially information technology systems. Together the five volumes treat comprehensively the major techniques and technologies that are involved.




Computer-aided Tolerancing


Book Description

Theory and practice of tolerances are very important for designing and manufacturing engineering artifacts on a rational basis. Tolerance specifies a degree of "discrepancy" between an idealized object and its physical realization. Such discrepancy inevitably comes into our product realization processes because of practical cost consideration or our inability to fully control manufacturing processes. Major product and production characteristics which are affected by tolerances are product quality and cost. For achieving high precision machines tight tolerance specification is necessary, but this will normally increase product cost. In order to optimally compromise the conflicting requirements of quality and cost, it is essential to take into account of the total product life cycle throughout product planning, design, manufacturing, maintenance and recycling. For example, in order to construct durable products under severe working conditions, low sensitivity of product functionality with respect to tolerances is required. In future, re-use of components or parts will become important, and tolerance synthesis with respect to this aspect will be an interesting future research topics.




Methods in Product Design


Book Description

As industries adopt consumer-focused product development strategies, they should offer broader product ranges in shorter design times and the processes that can manufacture in arbitrary lot sizes. In addition, they would need to apply state-of-the-art methods and tools to easily conduct early product design and development trade-off analysis among competing objectives. Methods in Product Design: New Strategies in Reengineering supplies insights into the methods and techniques that enable implementing a consumer-focused product design philosophy by integrating design and development capabilities with intelligent computer-based systems. The book defines customer focused design and discusses ways to assess changing demands and sources, and delves into what is needed to successfully manufacture goods in a demanding market. It reviews proven methods for assessing customer need. Then, after showing how changing needs impact the reengineering of products, it explains how change can be efficiently achieved. It details how IT advances and technology support customer-focused product development, discusses cutting-edge mass customization principles that maximize cost-effective production, and illustrates how to implement effective predictive maintenance policies. Methods in Product Design: New Strategies in Reengineering provides methods, state-of-the-art technologies, and new strategies for customer-focused product design and development that allow organizations to quickly respond to the demanding global marketplace.




Modeling and Analysis for Optimal Scheduling of Biodiesel Batch-Plants


Book Description

Generally, scheduling problems accompanying typical batch processes are vitally important to be solved for improving the plant productivity. In these respects, finding a good and feasible schedule or even an optimal result, by which costs and lead times can be reduced, is often a very complex and also a difficult task. Moreover, in large plants, the challenges come not only from the modeling ways that require systematic and structured approaches, but also from the exact strategies how the performance of the model can be analyzed. The goal of this research is to develop a comprehensive study on industrial-sized plants, with regard modeling and analysis of scheduling problems. Formalization of the required plant specifications, the modularly modeling ways which refer to the widely used batch standards, and also the strategies for tackling complexity, are the main contributions of this thesis. These studies will be carried out by using the Timed Net Condition/Event Systems (TNCES) model. Finally, the model is analyzed to synthesize an optimal control strategy for the investigated plants.




Advances In Manufacturing Technology IX


Book Description

This volume represents the state-of-the-art knowledge in the area of production and manufacturing engineering and management. The contributions cover such themes as design for manufacture, AMT, manufacturing systems, knowledge-based systems. The text is interspersed with real-life industrial case study experiences, so making explicit the relevance of these research findings to the improvementof current industrial practice.